Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Sunday that the Trump administration left a “vague” plan for the distribution of the coronavirus vaccine – while he defended Vice President Kamala Harris’ claims that President Biden’s team had to “start from zero “when he took office.
Harris made the statement on “Axios on HBO” last Sunday night, and the infectious disease specialist was asked about the comment this week during an interview on “Fox News Sunday”.
Anchor Chris Wallace asked, “Is this true?”
“What we can say is that the infrastructure and the planning capacity for the distribution of vaccines in people’s arms were very vague, as I said before. I mean, obviously it was not that nothing was done because we developed the vaccine, we made them and they were sent ”, said Fauci.
He said that critics should give Harris a “chance” because she did not “mean from scratch”.
“I mean, obviously, we had vaccines that we were giving to people, even before the end of the year. So, what she was referring to and I’m sure you can ask her again, she will say it was the process of putting him in the arms of people without any problems, which was a difficulty, very early on, we are just overcoming this now, ”Fauci continued.
Since taking office, Fauci said Biden has tried to expand the distribution of the vaccine by taking it to community centers, pharmacies and mobile units, as well as recruiting health professionals to deliver the vaccines in people’s arms.
“I believe the vice president was referring to the fact that, if you are talking about these things that I just mentioned, they were not in effect when the president came after the inauguration,” said Fauci.
In his comments at a Pfizer plant in Michigan on Friday, Biden also pointed a finger at his predecessor.
“Just over four weeks ago, America had no real plan to vaccinate most of the country. My predecessor – as my mother would say, ‘God loves you’ – did not ask for enough vaccines, failed to mobilize the effort to administer the vaccines, failed to set up vaccine centers. That changed the moment we took office, ”he said.